


Not Tommy

by beta_wolf



Series: In the Mind of Newt [1]
Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Drabble, M/M, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 06:54:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5775886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beta_wolf/pseuds/beta_wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From The Scorch Trials: When they notice their new tattoos, from Newt's perspective.  One shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Tommy

Everyone was talking over each other and scrambling to learn what their tattoos said. “They all say Group A.”

“Property of WICKED, just like his.”

“You’re Subject A13.”

“Subject A19.”

“A3.”

“A10.”

Newt ignored the cacophony and made his way methodically through the group. He brushed away hands and blocked out the panicking voices. He inspected everyone’s tattoos trying to memorize their names and numbers. They could be important later. They could be important now, he realized. Why else would they have appeared when they did? Just like Thomas and Teresa who had acted as catalysts. Everything in his life, remembered life, had existed to a purpose. Newt came to the next body and looked up. It was Thomas.

Their eyes met for a long moment. Thomas’s shirt which buttoned at the center was always flopping open revealing some of his chest. Newt didn’t need to move anything to read what it said. The knowledge hit him like it was his first night in the Glade again, like he was watching Alby die again. His internal voice was filled with anguish as he cried over and over again, Not Tommy. But no sound left his lips.

He sucked in a breath and asked, “What does mine say?”

Thomas shifted closer to him even though Newt had already been in reaching distance. He pulled the collar of his shirt down, and Newt felt chills rush through him from where Thomas’s finger tips brushed clumsily against his skin. Thomas leaned in to read the words. Newt concentrated on keeping himself calm, but between Thomas’s nearness and the words which had been etched on the other boy’s chest, Newt was a far way from calm.

“You’re Subject A5 and they called you the Glue,” Thomas said.

Newt was startled out of his worry. “The Glue?”

Thomas let go of his shirt and stepped back. Newt resisted the urge to catch Thomas’s hand as it left him. “Yeah. Probably because you’re kind of the glue that holds us all together.” Thomas blushed. Perhaps that was only Newt’s imagination. “I don’t know. Read mine.”

“I already did-” Newt responded, but he couldn’t finish the sentence. He could hardly lie about what it said. If another shank didn’t tell Thomas, all he had to do was wrestle himself a turn in front of the bathroom mirror.

“Well?” Thomas asked impatiently, but Newt could tell by his expression that Thomas already knew it wasn’t going to be good news.

“You’re Subject A2.” He had looked Thomas straight in the eyes determined to deliver the news unflinchingly so Thomas didn’t think even for a moment that he had to be strong for Newt. Thomas was looking at him so earnestly. Newt dropped his gaze to the floor.

“And?” Thomas prompted.

It wasn’t like saying it out loud would make it any truer, Newt told himself, but in some way it would. It was Thomas’s fate, though, and he had more right to it than Newt did. “It doesn’t call you anything. It just says… ‘To be killed by Group B’.”

Newt looked up to see Thomas’s face receive the latest blow. He was trying to think of something comforting to say when a bell started clanging, the noise reverberating off the walls. It was the Newbie alarm.


End file.
